7 mins Jonjo Shelvey's flag kick from firebomb corner was nodded on across the six yard box by Jamaal Lascelles and landed nicely for Ayoze Perez to bundle in from close range at the far post via his elbow. Ciaran Clark was also loitering for scraps, having pushed past daydreaming defender Tyias Browning. 1-0

14 mins A centre from the Newcastle left by Paul Dummett dropped to Aleksandar Mitrovic in the box but his unconvincing attempt at winning a penalty by going to ground was ignored and PNE advanced upfield at speed after the ball was played out to Jordan Hugill on halfway.

The former Gateshead loanee advanced into space and released Tom Barkhuizen down the left, who too advantage of lax covering by Vurnon Anita to pick out Hugill as he got in front of Clark to divert the ball past Rob Elliot in the Gallowgate End goal from 10 yards out. 1-1

45 mins Aidan McGeady let the ball run away from him in a central position just inside the United half and Issac Hayden led the charge upfield in a three v two break. With Mitrovic out to his right and Christian Atsu with clearer sight of goal to his left, Hayden's pass went out the Serbian - whose first touch was a ball that neatly bisected the two defenders and allowed the Ghanaian to thump home. 2-1

Half time: Toon 2 PNE 1 

65 mins Matt Ritchie swung in a corner that was helped on its way across the box by a PNE defender's head and allowed Perez to try his luck with a bicycle kick the goalkeeper blocked, although he succeeded only in placing it at Hayden's feet barely six yards out.

The former Arsenal midfielder's shot was out of Maxwell's reach but team mate Paul Gallagher decided to act as GK and pulled off a blatant two-handed block. An obvious penalty and red card, Ritchie's firm and low left-footed spot kick was placed into the bottom corner of the goal. 3-1

67 mins Yet another corner from Shelvey - this time from the Strawberry Corner - was dropped into the near post area and Hugill, whose attempted clearance failed to stop the ball's progress across the six yard area. Hitting the far post (and avoiding Daniel Johnson on that station) it rebounded back to Perez and entered the net from barely a yard out via his chest. 4-1

Full time: Toon 4 PNE 1

Rafa said:

PNE boss Simon Grayson said:

"It is a disappointing night, basic mistakes have cost us.

"We started the first five to ten minutes poorly – we expected them to come out because of what was at stake for them but we gave them a free opportunity from a set-piece.

"We get back into the game and kept possession and probably should have scored another.

"We had some good opportunities and limited them to set-pieces but then we gave the ball away sloppily on the stroke of half-time and it gives them a massive impetus for the second half.

"Again, in the second-half we did the basics wrong and if you do that you’re going to be punished by the opposition.

"You could sense the anxiety around the ground; Jordan led the line really well and Tom Barkhuizen was a constant threat down that left hand side. The midfield three was quite dominant and apart from a few set-pieces, they didn’t create too many opportunities.

"It felt like groundhog day when we went down to ten men last time.

"They needed that third goal and when we went down to ten men it was never going to be easy for us. From then on, it was making sure we didn’t shift too many goals.

"Again, all of the goals were preventable from a set-piece. They’ve not had to work hard enough and that’s a trait that we’ve had last month and that’s something we need to sort out.

"We knew it was going to be tough and that the crowd was going to be up for it but we needed to be up for that but we made it too easy for then.

"Huge congratulations to Rafa and his staff for getting promoted, they’re very worthy of that and we wish them well for the future.

"We’ve got to be better, there’s no two ways about it – we need to keep the ball better – we showed them too many opportunities.

"We don’t want to finish the season with a whimper because, for 98% of the season, apart from the last four games it’s been an outstanding effort.”